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ZERO TO FIVE MONTANA

EIN 93-3037949 HELENA, MT

Revenue 2025
$5,218,606
Expenses 2025
$4,072,194

Program services were 83.3% of total expenses calculated — Part IX's program-services column over total expenses, both as filed.

As filed

Subsection
03
NTEE code
P01
Classification
1000
Street
7 W 6TH AVE STE 504

These codes are the IRS's own and are shown exactly as filed. What each one means is in the Business Master File documentation (opens in a new tab).

Mission and programs · 2025

Mission

Zero to Five Montanas mission is to work for our children, for our future. Our promise is to stabilize, innovate, and build the early childhood system so Montana families and communities can thrive. We are a statewide early childhood organization, focused on increasing access to early care and education, supporting and strengthening families, uplifting voices, and empowering small businesses and communities to best support families with young children. We are nonpartisan and focused on solutions that work toward a Montana dedicated to every child.

  • At Zero to Five Montana, we work to merge policy and achievable solutions to enhance Montanas early childhood system. We recognize that meaningful change is achieved through concrete, collaborative actions aligned with long-term policy goals, adapting to the evolving needs of children and families across our state. We build momentum through grassroots advocacy, storytelling, and strategic collaboration at the community, state, tribal, and national levels. With nearly 1,000 local partnersincluding parents, providers, businesses, educators, and community coalitionswe are advancing a long-term movement for greater value and investment in early childhood. Our strong relationships with national, state, and local partners enable us to provide a well-informed perspective on a broad range of early childhood issues. As a convenor, connector, and communicator we drive a collective movement toward a shared vision for Montanas children and families. Our key objectives include: Convener: Facilitate strategies to advance early childhood priorities including leading coalitions such as the Montana Early Learning Alliance, the Montana Early Childhood Tribal Coalition, the Strong Start Alliance, and Montanas Early Childhood Network.Collaborator: Prioritize relationship-building across all aspects of our work. Through grassroots and grasstops strategies, we offer policy guidance, advocacy support, and capacity-building resources, including technical assistance, education, and trainings-working closely with local early childhood coalitions and supporting parent peer support groups in communities.Communicator: Serve as a trusted resource for policymakers and stakeholders by providing policy research, issue briefs, expert consultation, polling data, and compelling stories from across Montana. We ensure data and lived experiences are central to our messaging.Montana Child Care Business Connect (MCCBC), a program of Zero to Five Montana, is a statewide hub for child care business development and innovation. MCCBC was launched from American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding through a competitive Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services (DPHHS) grant awarded in May 2022. This program is currently funded by the DPHHS through a Child Care Development Fund (CCDF) Business Supports Contract. MCCBC supports new and expanding child care providers, employers, and community initiatives to stabilize and grow Montanas early childhood system. Through peer mentoring, individual consultations, professional development, and a business focused online resource hub, child care business owners gain essential business skills. MCCBC also supports shared services for providers to access, including virtual care services. In 2025, MCCBC led to tangible outcomes for programs within the child care sector that engaged in the free services offered:New child care businesses: 7 new child care program starts, and 3 child care program expansions supportedIncreased child care capacity: Support services contributed to 155 new child care slotsEnhanced business knowledge: 57 professional development opportunities offered, with 31 home-based providers graduating from an intensive 10-week business focused series. 50 programs were supported through 2024 and 2025 in a Workforce Recruitment and Retention initiative where program leaders received technical assistance, resources, training, and support to develop, implement, and plan sustainability for effective recruitment and retention practices.Access to shared services: In 2025, 26 programs supported their staff by enrolling in AllyHealth Virtual Care services.Community focused work: 88 total community training and technical assistance meetings facilitated across multiple communities.By equipping child care business entrepreneurs with the tools to succeed, MCCBC has helped increase access to child care for Montana families and supported child care businesses to be more sustainable.MCCBC also supports community-led initiatives aimed at increasing the supply of early care and education slots and growing a robust early childhood system. The team offers ongoing, one-on-one, customizable technical assistance and training related to early childhood community development. Additionally, MCCBC facilitates an annual Community Child Care Capacity Building Cohort, prioritizing peer learning through the foundational stages of collaborative action. This model guides community groups through team building, data collection and analysis, solution-focused discussions, action planning, and more.Family Forward Montana In 2025, Zero to Five Montana advanced its Family Forward Montana initiative to support employer adoption of family-friendly workplace practices that improve retention and workforce stability. The program provided technical assistance, toolkits, and guidance to employers implementing policies such as flexible scheduling, paid leave, and employer-sponsored child care benefits.Family Forward Montana joined the Best Place for Working Parents network, giving employers access to an online self-assessment of ten research-backed policies and the opportunity to earn a real-time designation recognizing implementation of family-friendly practices. In 2025, 22 employers received the Best Place for Working Parents designation.To address workforce challenges related to child care, Zero to Five Montana, in partnership with the Montana Department of Public Health and Human Services Bright Futures Birth to Five Program, administered approximately $2 million in employer-sponsored child care grants. In 2025, 28 employers received subawards to implement solutions including tuition assistance, dependent care benefits, reserved child care slots, and onsite or near-site care.These efforts benefited an estimated 230 employees (estimate) by increasing access to child care and reducing barriers to workforce participation.The programs short-term objective is increasing employer adoption of family-friendly policies; its long-term objective is statewide implementation to strengthen Montanas workforce and economy.

    Expenses $3,391,911

As filed on the 2025 return.

Officers and directors · 2025

As listed in Part VII of the 2025 return, in the order the filer printed them. Each return names its own; this is not a roster the organization keeps with us.

  • CAITLIN JENSEN

    Executive Dir.

    Total calculated
    $123,830
    From this org
    $119,591
    From related orgs
    $0
    Other
    $4,239
    Hours/week
    40

  • NORILINA HARVEL

    Dir. Operations

    Total calculated
    $107,052
    From this org
    $85,186
    From related orgs
    $0
    Other
    $21,866
    Hours/week
    40

  • JIM FITZGERALD

    President

    Total calculated
    $0
    Hours/week
    1

  • DENISE INCORONATO

    Vice President

    Total calculated
    $0
    Hours/week
    1

  • JENNA RHOADS

    Secretary

    Total calculated
    $0
    Hours/week
    1

  • KRYSTAL STEWART

    finance chair

    Total calculated
    $0
    Hours/week
    1

Compensation is as filed in Part VII: reportable pay from this organization and from related organizations, other compensation, and hours per week. The total, marked calculated, is our sum of the three dollar columns, with a blank column counted as $0; the form itself has no total. On a Form 990-EZ the columns are Part IV's instead, and on a Form 990-PF Part VIII's — compensation, contributions to benefit plans, and expense account — and the total sums those. Earlier years are each on their own filing page.

Filings

  • 2025
    Revenue
    $5,218,606
    Expenses
    $4,072,194
    Contributions
    $5,185,612
    Grants paid
    $1,983,500
  • 2024
    Revenue
    $2,621,021
    Expenses
    $2,496,782
    Contributions
    $2,613,718
    Grants paid
    $70,000
  • 2023
    Revenue
    $30
    Expenses
    $0
    Contributions
    $30
    Grants paid
    $0

The four totals the IRS asks for on Part I of the Form 990, as filed. A dash means the figure was not present on the return — not that it was zero.

Grants made

The 10 largest by cash amount. The API serves every itemized grant.

Where these grants went next →

Grants received

No itemized grant names this organization as a recipient. Only grants over $5,000 are itemized, and only by filers of the full Form 990.

Other IRS files

Auto-Revocation List

Not listed. The IRS publishes this list for organizations whose exemption was automatically revoked for failing to file for three consecutive years.

Publication 78

Listed as of 13 October 2026, under deductibility PC.

These are two separate IRS files on two separate schedules, shown as published and not reconciled with each other. Neither is a statement about whether a contribution is deductible today: 19,245 organizations appear in Publication 78 while the IRS's own revocation file lists them as currently revoked, more than half of those revoked before 2019. Absence from Publication 78 is evidence of nothing, and presence is not evidence either. Verify current status with the IRS before relying on it.

What this page reflects

The registration facts above come from the IRS Business Master File published 13 October 2026 and read 26 October 2026, for every organization at once. Returns through tax year 2025, the newest we have parsed for this organization.